Getting a few things in Order....

Saturday, June 24, 2016

I got up early to get as much into a day as I could.   To run efficiently all day, I knew that I needed to eat a big breakfast that would keep me going all day.  I had shrimp Pad Thai, shrimp fried rice and 6 shrimp weight 14 ounces batter fried.  I don't know if efficiently was the correct word.  I was very full and slow to get up and get moving again.  It was another gourmet meal at a local market nearby the hotel.  I can understand why my students laughed when I told them that we eat cereal in America.  But..........if you were to have this meal at a restaurant or even at home, it would easily cost over 20 dollars, maybe 30 dollars.  I paid 6 dollars for all that food and I had to take some home with me for a snack later on.  Not the most exciting blog, maybe even on the verge of being boring.  Remember, take the good with the bad.  It can't always be good.

Below:  The Euro Cup is the Soccer championship for the continent of Europe---2016  There are 16 teams still in the tournament.  Most of the games will be starting at 11 PM or 2 AM.  Football is so big in Thailand that the government has approved bars being open 24 hours during the tournament.

 Below:  How many spelling errors can you find on the sign posted outside a nearby bar?  Obviously this person was not in my English class at the International School.  

Geography Quiz:  What's the difference between people from Dubai and people from Abu Dhabi?  People from Dubai don't like the Flinstones and people from Abu Dhabi Doo!

Below:  My new North Face back pack since I have accumulated too much stuff to carry home.

Dalton and Garrett.......STOP!!!!!!

You are NOT to READ ON.  SURPRISE 

Do not look at any more of this blog today!

I took the BTS to pick up some gifts and and my new backpack.  I mailed a couple packages out today to make room in my bags to haul everything home. 

Elephants are the National Symbol of Thailand 

Below:  Dalton and Garrett are starting to collect scarves from various soccer teams around the world.  I picked up a couple to bring back to the USA.  I went to a dozen stores but could not find a Thailand scarf.  

Facts about Thailand.

Thailand's current population of domesticated elephants is about 2,700. After a precipitous decline from about 100,000 domesticated elephants in 1850.  

About 95% of Thai elephants are in private ownership, with the Thai Elephant Conservation Center's 80 elephants being Thailand's only government-owned elephants apart from a few in zoos and the King's ten revered 'white' elephants in the Royal Elephant Stable.

What’s so special about a white elephant?

The expression “white elephant” refers to a gift, typically cumbersome and large in size, that is difficult to dispose of and exorbitantly expensive to maintain. Like, say, something that eats 200 to 600 pounds of food in a single day. Legend holds that the king of Siam would bestow white elephants upon his wilier courtiers, in hopes that the high cost of handling would bankrupt them—inspiring the modern Christmas party-game of “White Elephant,” or “In old Siam, it would have been the grossest of discourtesies to decline such a gift. The white elephant—which was more often than not stricken with albinism, and thus more a ruddy-pink color—was, and remains to this day, a symbol of success. To possess a white elephant connoted political power, wealth and prosperity, great wisdom, and the love of one’s people.If a member of the king’s court had somehow landed on his majesty’s bad side, and lacked the funds to properly care for such a beast, the status afforded by ownership was nonetheless too great to refuse. To reject a gift of a white elephant would have been illogical if you valued your reputation. And your head.